to follow up on what Andrea Elliott said:
> My name is Andrea and I am doing a Masters Degree in Disability
> Studies at Leeds University (UK).
Wonderful!
> I would like to produce a questionnaire and place it on the net
> and ask disabled people to complete it. The questionnaire will
> ask them to look at several major websites in the UK (probably
> utility related) and ask them to report back on the
> accessibility of these websites.
This is scary.
How much have you talked to blind Web users?
I fear that asking volunteer evaluators to undergo the hardship
of wrestling with a web form will radically restrict your ability
to tap their knowledge. Please reconsider. Seriously search for
a sponsor for the phone time to talk to your respondents instead.
Or at least prominently offer a plain-text email option for the
web form.
> Do any of the list members know of any similar research that
> has been undertaken in the past? If so, please can you point me
> in the right direction.
The bibliography in the Page Author Guidelines is a good start.
Maryvonne Lumley <maryv@minster.cs.york.ac.uk> did a similar
study seeking understanding of colour effects in web sites by a
rather ambitious web contstruction. You might check to see how
she fared.
You may have done the following already; here is my checklist for
things you should have done before you set the scope of your
investigation and decide the clinical details of how you will
collect data.
- spend some time in the lab with people using adaptive
technology to browse the web
- interview a few expert computer and web access evaluators
such as
Patrick Burke <burke@ucla.edu>
Neal Ewers <ewers@trace.wisc.edu>
Kelly Ford <kford@teleport.com>
Al Gilman